Samsung's Galaxy S8/S8 Plus is the best phone for most people. It's available across all four US carriers and unlocked. It has the best display on any smartphone right now, a head-turning, premium design, a top-of-the-line camera, reliable battery life, and fast performance. Thanks to Samsung's popularity and the support of all four carriers, the S8 also has plenty of accessories, from cases to battery packs to wireless chargers, available to it.

You can definitely make a case for the S8 being the best phone for most people, but personally, I still consider the iPhone to be the best, safest choice for most non-geeky people. Personally, I prefer Android, and for my personal use, iOS on the iPhone is an exercise in frustration - but iOS provides a more consistent, all-around phone experience that remains fairly static from phone to phone, it's a little simpler to grasp than Android, and Apple has an excellent support system in many countries that's far better than Samsung's hands-off let-the-reseller-handle-it approach.

I wonder - what do any of you consider the best phone for most people? If one of your non-geeky family members seeks your advice, which phone do you suggest they get?

That's a big advantage Android has over iOS that folks like Thom don't understand. When I as a developer package an Android I can target way back to at least API 15 (Android 4.0.3) and still use the latest APIs. The SDK just bundles all the new goodies with the app, so it'll run on those old OS versions.

Android: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
iOS: 8, 9, 10, 11

What is your point? As far as I can tell you don't have one.

Edit: Thinking about it you mean the new APIs from 8 would be included and work with 4? That sounds horrific in terms of what would need to be included for some things.